Why does my skin color look off?

Why do I look bad in photos?

Skin tone is the first thing your eye registers in a portrait. When the color is true to real-life, you don’t notice it. But when it’s not accurate, the whole image feels wrong even if the lighting and the pose were good.

Accurate skin-tone, aka white-balance is a skill, not an accident. It takes more care for some skin tones than others. Some camera brands trend warmer, cooler, pinker, bluer. And if you’re not photographed in a studio, but outdoors, you’re likely to have your skintone pick up the surrounded major color, often times, green.

Every single photo you see in my portfolio has been carefully calibrated to match the subjects actual skin-tone.

You do not need a trained eye to check your own photos.

Look at anything white. A white shirt or collar should look white, not pink, orange or blue. If the white is tinted, your skin is tinted the same way.

Look at the eyes and teeth. The whites of the eyes and the teeth should read neutral, not yellow and not gray. That is a fast tell.

Look at yourself in a mirror, then at the photo. Your skin in the image should match the tone you see in the glass. Not warmer, not cooler. Just you.

So why does this happen? Screens are part of the problem. Every monitor shows color a little differently, so an image edited on an uncalibrated screen looks fine to the editor and wrong to everyone else. I calibrate my monitor so what I see is true, and I edit skin with the person in front of me in mind, not a preset.

A professional portrait has one job. It should look like you, at your best.

If your current photos have ever made you think you do not photograph well, I will gently offer that the problem might not be you. Come see what true-to-life color looks like. Look through my work.